Question by ♪♫ I rule punk-rock! ♫♪: Can I take Music and Computer Science at Kings College, Cambridge?
I want to get a double first in Music and Computer Science. Can I do that at King’s College, Cambridge?
Best answer:
Answer by kiki
You can do whatever you want.
Add your own answer in the comments!
“Jesus of Nazareth” star Robert Powell narrates “The Book of Signs”; an educational Islamic video produced in 1986 with the approval of the Al-Azhar Committee in Egypt, the Saudi Daw’ah Council and the Malaysian Prime Minister’s Office. It is based on the scientific studies of Frenchman Dr. Maurice Bucaille who wrote among other books “The Bible, the Quran and Science,” which details the parallels between the Quranic Worldview and that of modern Science- asserting that the Quran bafflingly anticipates all aspects of proven knowledge ranging from embryology to cosmology and still remains current and in tandem with scientific progress. It being inconceivable that such accurate descriptions of elucidated modern knowledge could have come from an illiterate man who lived over 1400 years ago in the middle of the Arabian wilderness- in an era when scientific errors would have crept into the Quran if it were a man-made text. What’s more is that it remains today preserved exactly as it was revealed- the most unique Book on Earth [Revealed from the Heavenly domains by an All-Knowing Source]. The conclusion is inevitable; the Quran is the very expression of God’s Truthful Revelation.Fair Use Copyright Disclaimer: I do not claim to own the copyrights of all the images, videos or audio clips utilised incidentally in the compilation of this educational video, and I acknowledge that they belong wholly to their original copyright holders and state that no malicious copyright infringement …
Video Rating: 4 / 5
Want to see hundreds of pieces of music kit from keyboards to oscilloscopes, plus some 1500 mini-Theremin toys for students, coupled with US-wide education to help introduce young people to science? That’s the idea behind a grant proposal by the Moog Foundation. The Foundation’s MoogLab teaches science through sound – a worthy cause. Not only was Bob Moog’s life in electronic music ignited by discovering the Theremin, but many of today’s generation of scientists and thinkers were raised on electronic sound kits a few short decades ago. Without the same exposure to science and sound, young boys and girls may not get on the same path.
If you like the idea, the project needs votes. Michael Gallant (formerly an editor Keyboard Magazine, still a contributor) writes with this update:
We are up for earning a $ 250K grant to take electronic music instruments into schools to teach under-served kids science via the Moog Foundation’s MoogLab program. The catch is that we’re ranked #92 now by public vote and we need to be #1 or #2 by the end of December in order to win the funding.
Voting is daily; that is, vote early, vote often. Voting every day in December gives the project you want better chances.
More information:
http://www.refresheverything.com/bobmoogfoundation
The Refresh Everything grant aside, I’d love to hear more discussion of how to bring electronics and sound to young people around the world – your ideas are certainly welcome.
If you like your music on the experimental side, you’re going to want to keep February 10-13 free next year, because that’s when the University of Plymouth Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research will be hosting the annual Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival.
2011′s festival is entitled Re-Sounding Science and includes a 30-minute live duet between a human violinist and subatomic particles, a five-movement piece for orchestra, percussion and prepared piano, a two-day international conference examining the relationship between neuroscience, art and music, and a responsive piece between an artificially intelligent whale school and saxophone. You can book tickets for the festival here.
2nd November 2010: Audio Ease has released updates for the Rocket Science and Nautilus bundles. Changes in Rocket Science v3.5.9 and Nautilus v2.5.9 bundles: This update fixes graphic issues in the VST version. Impr…
AudioProFeeds-1
Handmade Music is a community get-together, Science Fair, noise-making happening, and party for people making things that make music. We return to NYC on Sunday, August 29 at 7p. Our new Manhattan home is Culturefix, a new electronics boutique, gallery, and tapas bar on the Lower East Side.
This month, we welcome a classically-trained guitar duo using their instruments to play games, an original string-modeling instrument, a sonic dodecahedron sculpture (really), artists using game chips, and more. Last-minute creations are always welcome.
If you’re in New York, we definitely hope to see you Sunday night. And wherever you are, it’s my pleasure to introduce some of the artists we have involved.
Presented with our friends at Make Magazine, Etsy.com, and XLR8R.
THIS SUNDAY, August 29, 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM (come at the beginning, or miss stuff!)
In Manhattan, at 9 Clinton St
COMPLETELY FREE
(cash bar/food… and you might decide to buy some designer headphones, just be forewarned)
That’s right. “Look at this ****ing nerdster…”
David Hindman and Evan Drummond describe their act, coupling classical guitar training with a love of games:
Guitar Hero Is Dead: Guitarists Use Real Guitars to Control Video Games in a hybrid concert / public video game battle
Forget about using a plastic guitar to mimic your favorite band. What if you could use a real guitar just like any other video game joystick — and thrash your opponent while you create original music?
Two classically-trained New York City guitarists calling themselves “Modal Kombat” have hacked into classic video games Pong, Tetris, Mortal Kombat and Mario Kart. This month at The Boulder International Fringe Festival, they’ll make their characters move — and battle against each other — with a flurry of guitar-plucking.
The show is a video-game battle/performance-art hybrid that’s open to the public. The goal is to demonstrate that real guitars — or other musical instruments — can be viable video game controllers.
About Modal Kombat:
Modal Kombat is a NYC-based performance group consisting of Yale School of Music alumni David Hindman and Evan Drummond. For the past five years, they’ve performed public guitar-controlled video game battles at various venues in Europe, New York City, and around the U.S.Before the game Guitar Hero was released, Hindman was an NYU grad student, developing hardware and software that allowed real musical instruments to control various types of existing console video games. In 2004, he created the system that became the basis for Modal Kombat shows. At each show, various musical pitches, volume levels, and other musical parameters are programmed to trigger each character’s movement, such as Left, Right, Punch or Jump.
Nick Demopoulos has devised his own instrument from custom hardware and software:
The Smomid is a homemade midi controller. It’s name is an acronym for “String Modeling Midi Device.” It is made with the use of several membrane potentiometers, knobs and switches.
http://www.nickdemopoulos.com/smomidelements/smomid2.html
Handmade Music favorite Ted Hayes brings a novel modal hardware/software combination, part original application, part original sculpture, as presented at the NIME research conference:
Traditional music sequencers are designed fundamentally around predictability and repetition, and these are powerful elements that make them so ubiquitous. More modern approaches to algorithmic composition heavily involve unpredictability and randomness that is then (sometimes) tamed and manipulated by the composer, resulting in a nonlinear compositional and performative process.
The Neurohedron is a novel music instrument and modal software controller that I conceived of as a nonlinear sequencer. The simplest traditional sequencers may employ eight steps that return to the first step after reaching the last step; in contrast, the Neurohedron is a three dimensional sequencer with twelve nodes arranged as a dodecahedron. With this structure, there is no clear or de facto path that the progression from one node to the next may take, unlike the linear and prescribed nature of a traditional sequencer.
Neurohedron: First working video!! from Tedb0t on Vimeo.
Lots and lots of additional information (including more videos, documentation explaining the process and software design, and the NIME research paper):
http://log.liminastudio.com/projects/neurohedron
For some of you, I imagine that a world that has tasty New York beers, organic tapas, and chip music playing is pretty close to heaven. The good folks of New York’s famed Pulsewave series team up with us to provide us handheld chip music.
Thanks to the awesome Peter Swimm for making this happen.
Featured:
Square Wail: Square Wail is Matthew and Rebecca Kenall running an assortment of handhelds. They like fat beats with old timey melodies and try to infuse their music with such. Hailing from Seattle they are coming to the East Coast for the first time (except for once when Rebecca had a layover at JFK).
2010 Aug 10 – OMG Franz – Brooklyn – Dapantz from EM Dash on Vimeo.
Walking Like We Were Shot Through Our Heads by DaPantz
DaPantz (seen in video, heard in SoundCloud above, and with his own free EP):
Uptown New York’s satirically named DaPantz has been known to shout “BX HOLLA BACK” with reckless abandon. Often eschewing structure in favor of mood, he creates chaotic industrial, hip-hop and Latin flavored dance-punk on the Nintendo Game Boy. Using the homebrew cartridge LSDJ, DaPantz fuses heavy beats and a dissonant use of melody with the more unsettling side of the human psyche, creating the soundtracks to your nightmares (but reminding you that it’s okay to dance to them).
January 2010 – Kris Keyser at Bar Matchless from EM Dash on Vimeo.
Kris Keyser is just another guy with a Game Boy. Having hopped from instrument to instrument in his over 10 years of music making, Kris has finally found his perfect match in the portable powerhouse known as Little Sound DJ. In his relatively short time in the chip scene, Kris has jumped from relative unknown to relative known,playing chipscene institutions I/O and Pulsewave and making countless feet move and brains melt. Kris looks forward to a 2010 release on Cheese’N’Beer.
AdamGetsAwesome has been spreading beer-fueled mayhem across the world since 2008. Using the LSDJ program on the Nintendo Game Boy, Adam creates melodies ranging from the sickeningly sweet to the hauntingly atmospheric, always bringing a healthy dose of PARTY to every performance. His debut EP “AGA” is not only the inaugural CNB release, but also an exercise in actions befitting his namesake. Party.”
Website/free EP download: http://adamgetsawesome.com/album/aga
Registration is now closed for the workshop, but we’ll be inviting creators of our phototheremin kit, designed by Eric Archer after an original design by Forrest Mims, to come play their instruments – boys, girls, adults, and kids.
Check out the kit.
Sunday August 29
7:00 – 10:00 PM (come early)
Culturefix details
Yes, it’s free.
Yes, kids are allowed. (just not at the bar)
RSVP on Facebook.
Read more:
Handmade Music NY 8/29: Meet the Musical Inventors, Pong to Dodecahedrons
For an artist, being productive and being happy are often closely intertwined. Whether you’re polishing off an album, practicing your instrument, patching or coding a new musical tool, or managing your career, music requires immense levels of focus and discipline. Then there’s the matter of the stuff that tends to be an obstacle: your day job, your to-do list, your taxes. Most musicians aren’t full-time, but even if you are, sometimes the greatest challenge is simply hurdling everything that isn’t your music, leaving you time for what is.
Digital technology is naturally the bread and butter of the site, but lately, the computer has been blamed for a lack of a focus. Certainly, computers do provide opportunities for abuse: browsers with multiple tabs, always-on Internet connections, and endless capacity to switch tasks could make your computer a distraction machine. But I do have to admit, I’ve found recent allegations about the Internet frustrating. Anecdotally, they just don’t make sense: I doodled and daydreamed in class as a kid long before the Web. I’ve never really needed advanced technology to be distracted. I also can find immense, profound focus using technology. It just doesn’t add up. To make matters worse, a lot of claims that the Internet was “rewiring” your mind made heavy use of blood flow imaging of the brain, long a suspect and incomplete means of modeling the complexity of human thought.
Happily, Science may be on my side. My friend Nick Bilton wrote a superb round-up of the flipside of the argument, pointing in particular to cognitive scientist Steven Pinker’s rebuttal.
The Defense of Computers, the Internet and Our Brains [New York Times Bits Blog]
It’s well worth reading – if, like me, you don’t mind reading on a screen from beginning to end, thoughtfully.
Okay, so the medium isn’t to blame. But that leaves the responsibility square in our court. Blessed with one of the great miracles of the universe, your mind, how can you tap into your deepest channels of creative expressiveness – and get all the business of your life out of the way?
Techniques, like computers, are just tools, but they can be useful nonetheless. I’m particularly pleased at the moment with the Pomodoro Technique, in case you didn’t guess from the tomato picture that leads this post.
The idea is this: work on a task, just one task, without distractions or multi-tasking, for 25 minutes. Then take a five-minute break.
It’s incredibly simple – and, to me, incredibly effective. I’ve tried it while working on music and coding, and felt more focused. I find it does two things. For one, it gives me the discipline to avoid checking a browser tab to procrastinate when I get stuck on a task – always with the knowledge that I only have to keep up this level of focus for less than half an hour. Avoiding multitasking is essential: it allows you to make the Internet a powerful tool for inspiration.
Oddly, the other advantage has actually been that it forces me to take breaks. Often, I have no problem plunging into a task, especially something like music. The problem is, over-abundant focus can be as energy-sapping as distraction: sitting at a computer or desk, your body begins to tense up, you forget to drink water and stretch, and so on. Even working with music, that can mean that you begin to lose focus or perspective. Returning to the Internet as a tool, those five minute breaks could be a chance for a quick Internet injection of ideas from off the fovea, off the central focal point of your eye. Creativity is sometimes best stimulated by something that has nothing to do with the task at hand.
Generally, I found the technique had the opposite impact from what I expected: it made me more able to lose track of time, by keeping my body and mind in a rhythm.
See Lifehacker for more:
The Pomodoro Technique Trains Your Brain Away From Distractions
There’s even a Google Chrome extension, which is nice when you’re browsing: Chromodoro Adds a Pomodoro Timer to Chrome
For everything else, I just use a stopwatch on my phone.
In addition to focus, though, I’m interested how readers manage tasks. For me, this fits into two broad categories:
1. Elements of big projects, stuff I care about
2. Everything else
Task management for me is taking care of the “everything else” stuff so I can focus on the big projects. And that usually means segregating lists. I like Gina Trapani’s incredibly-elegant command-line todo tool, which I’ve found to be the quickest way of adding tasks, sorting them to find out what you should be doing next with a small slice of time, and getting them done and forgotten about – minimal management required. (I use the Python fork; see a recent happy birthday post. If I ever have time, I’ll whip up a quick Android version to keep my ‘Droid coding skills sharp.)
That’s just one tool, though; Remember the Milk is excellent on the Web, desktop, iPhone, and Android. So is paper.
What about tracking progress on big projects, though? An in-progress music album feels different than a long list of random tasks (send in a tax form, invoice so and so, pick up laundry detergent). But it can be helpful to divide big projects into smaller steps – and it can be essential to remember small details of something like a piece of music as you work. How do you manage those tasks?
For collaborative projects, a lot of people I know are great fans of simple, subscription-based Web project management Basecamp. Years after this was a highly-hyped tool, it remains helpful; it’s what I’m using now to collaborate on an electronics project and to work on an elaborate redesign of CDM.
Basecamp doesn’t make much sense if you’re polishing off your album, though, necessarily. So what tools do you use?
I’ll close with one simple thought, which is that what binds all these things together for me is a simple sense of mindfulness. It’s a concept from Buddhism, reinforced in Psychology, but I find even without disciplined meditation or something elaborate, basic awareness can have a profound impact on your work and focus. Just taking a moment to take note of my breathing, stop thinking about other things for a moment, or be aware of how my body feels can radically alter my day. As I’ve talked to artists – as I did while meeting with various folks in Germany and Portugal traveling over the past weeks – I’ve heard similar things.
As it happens, the image I found above comes from a Norway-based composer and sound designer named Harry Koopman, who himself focuses on this very issue – and has short films and soundtracks to accompany them. Those films could be ideal sources of audiovisual meditation if you need something online to focus your head before an extended work session.
http://www.mindfulness.nl/
None of this is directly related to music, but for the kinds of music being produced on this site, I think it’s very relevant. Readers on CDM are often assembling their own tools and assembling their own music from scratch, working with the incredible abstraction music production on computers demands, working with scores, and getting close to the most personal, intimate sense of self-expression in musical creation. Without discipline and focus, it’s possible to wind up frustrated and downright depressed fast – and the opposite is true, too. for me is a great time to think about this stuff; it’s the break in the academic calendar (and I still am often teaching), it’s a big seasonal shift here in North America, and amidst travel and occasional trips to the beach, my head is clear. With dissertation research, software to code, documentation, writing, blogging, and music, I know I have plenty to keep me busy. Maybe having the winter mindset in the midst of summer (see photo above) is part of what makes this all work.
So I’m curious what you think. Hopefully we can follow up with more tips for keeping you creative. And digital. And musical. Creatively digitally musical.
So, let us know:
1. How do you stay focused when working on a computer?
2. Does the Pomodoro work for you?
3. How do you manage tasks – little ones, or big ones associated with musical projects?
4. How do you keep your mind happy?
I look forward to your responses.
Originally posted here:
Brains, Computers, Focus: How Do You Stay Productively Creative?
We know you’re out there: somehow, you haven’t heard the gospel of the Theremin, the first great electronic instrument of the 20th Century. Our friend Yaniv Fituci, associate producer for G4 TV, takes on the topic and some condenses it into the space of about three minutes, through the magic of lots of jump cuts. (It’s called MTV-style-editing, and I hear these kids love this MTV thing. It’ll be huge!)
It’s actually a pretty darned good explanation, and features the innards of a Moog Theremin kit getting replaced with an Altoids tin. The choice of the Moog kit, while pricey, is spot on: I’ve seen some disastrous and frustrating results with some of the other kits out there, not to mention the Moog model looks and feels utterly gorgeous when it’s done. Bonus points for celebrity cameos by our boys Bre Pettis and (Handmade Music co-organizer) Collin Cunningham.
If you’ve been looking for a three-minute video you can use to help explain to the uninitiated what a Theremin is and how it works, it’s worth a try. Comments welcome.
It’s #&*%ing Science! The Science Behind Theremins
Read more:
Attention, Newcomers: Theremin Explained in 3 Minutes
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. We get to enjoy the sounds and sights made by chips, independent games, and Novation Launchpad-controlled Sega Mega Drives. Blip Fest hits NYC this week in a celebration of vintage and lo-fi chips and the wonderful, blippy music they produce. To get things started right on Wednesday night, we have a special edition of Handmade Music, the DIY music party/science fair/noisy racket series, in a special location — the opening of Babycastles, a new, permanent home for independent games. (Think “indie arcade,” an idea I hope spreads worldwide.)
If you’re in the area, come check out some terrific independent games, meet artists, see in person the inventions of Australia’s Little Scale, and more. OPEN CALL FOR STUFF: Visiting Blip artists and NYC-area hackers, if you’ve got a visual or musical creation related to gaming or chip music, we’d love to have you show-and-tell and make some noise with it; this is, as always, an open potluck for the things you make. (Bring cables and, if you can, portable amplification/headphones.) Everyone, if you can make it out a little early, we’ll have a “secret” workshop with Loud Objects to solder a chip music toy, even if you’re a beginner. (Sign up below; we’ll need a very small fee for parts.)
Wherever you are, Sebastian Tomczak from South Australia, aka Little Scale, is a sound artist you really don’t want to miss. For a long list of awesome, look no further than his blog, for Game Boys tuned like Japanese kotos, Max patch sequencers to download, and Game Boy Advance albums. He’s promised to bring his performance-ready Sega MegaDrive and Atari 2600 jr, a 2600 MIDI interface, and the Sega sounds controlled by new tech, the Novation Launchpad, as pictured in the video at top.
http://little-scale.blogspot.com/
Sign up for the “secret” chip music toy soldering workshop with Loud Objects:
Signup for semi-secret workshop
More on the event / map:
The location is in the Bushwick neighborhood. For those of you in from out of town, Google Maps can give you transit directions and time estimates; it’s a pretty easy trip from Manhattan, and we’ll head back there afterward to catch Blip’s open mic night. Official event info:
Babycastles Arcade Kickoff Party feat. Handmade Chiptunes Night
Free, Wednesday, December 16th, 6:00PM – 8:30PM
Babycastles teams up with Handmade Music Night for the inaugural opening of a permanent indie games arcade in Brooklyn.915 Wyckoff Street, L to Halsey or M to Myrtle / Wyckoff. (map below)
This opening celebrates Adam Atomic’s Canabalt (NYC), Ivan Safrin’s Owl Country (NYC), Tristan Perich’s KillJet (NYC), and Kyle Purver’s Jottobots (NY), which will be playable all night and throughout December. Cardboard lectures by the game developers! High Score Chalkboard Dress by Lara Grant! Chiptunes performance and workshop by little-scale (AU)! Show up extra early for a secret chipmusic toy soldering workshop by the Loud Objects.
Part of an official Blip Festival Pre-Party – 10% discount on Blip Festival tickets available, and a group hug ride to the Tank afterwards!
Babycastles, New York’s first independent games arcade, is named after bite-size portugese cakes in Japan. As a new function of a legendary all-ages venue for Brooklyn music and other local diy-culture, Babycastles is a wall of six lovingly decorated arcade cabinets that offers a physical place to play games made by amateur and independent game developers. The arcade is open four or five nights a week, during every show at the Silent Barn. The venue throws an opening party every few weeks for a new collection of arcade games, with the game developers present, music, drinks, and plenty of opportunity to get together and love games.
Part party, part mixer, part Science Fair, and part performance, this is an informal chance for geeksters and the geek-curious to come together, relax, and discover new sounds. The evening is a gathering of inventors of new instruments & music technology. Featuring circuit-bent toys, custom software and patches, interactive digital & visual instruments, custom electronics, electricity-powered noisemakers, DIY robots and new acoustic instruments. And it’s open to everyone from hard-core hackers & newcomers to music lovers who want to learn about the DIY music scene.
Read more from the original source:
Blip Festival Handmade Music Opener, and the Sega Mega Drive Meets MIDI + Launchpad
Native Instruments has announced the release of Sonic Fiction, a new KORE-Powered instrument that combines inventive field recording with advanced synthesis into an arsenal of hundreds of genuinely otherworldly sounds.
Designed by prolific sound design artist Jeremiah Savage and usable with KORE 2 and the free KORE PLAYER, the instrument provides musicians and producers with a inspirational resource for movie and game scoring, modern sound design and various electronic music styles.
Expanding on sound design paradigms established with Jeremiah Savage’s previous ACOUSTIC REFRACTIONS collection, the sounds in SONIC FICTION are inspired by imaginative Science Fiction scenarios and concepts. Unusual, complex acoustic sources ranging from volcanic mudpots to television static were carefully captured in extensive field recording sessions, and combined with the vast synthesis and sound processing capabilities of ABSYNTH, KONTAKT and KORE. The result is an array of previously unheard, charismatic instruments that are both alien and organic in their sonic character, but also highly playable and of profound musical value.
SONIC FICTION provides 100 KoreSounds with eight morphable Sound Variations each, resulting in 800 individual sounds. Concise parameter assignments allow for immediate, intuitive sound tweaking in KORE 2 and KORE PLAYER. Full musical metadata for all presets also makes SONIC FICTION integrate seamlessly with any individual collection of KORE-Powered instruments.
Sonic Fiction features